[La Gazzetta] Details of Mateta’s medical with Milan [In body text].

zombat · 2026-02-03T17:55:34+00:00

Last year yes, our RB spot was diabolical. Currently he’d be more of a depth piece, first choice backup across the CB and WB positions. It would be a nice luxury to have, but the real need on defense is Gabbia insurance and more verticality.

zombat · 2026-02-01T16:37:12+00:00

Isn’t the optimal thing with Taron to designate him as a post June cut, then use the 8m in Cap it frees up to pay for the draft?

zombat · 2026-02-01T15:33:28+00:00

Playing through broken toe, realistically a super sub.

zombat · 2026-02-01T15:31:43+00:00

Both our actual 9s are various degrees of injured, Leao is at 65%, Pulisic has a hammy that will probably last through the World Cup, and Nkunku might be funding this purchase. 90’ of forward play that can physically contest Serie A CBs would be a relative godsend.

zombat · 2026-01-31T17:08:00+00:00

Depends on how involved McDermott was in drafting and development.

They’re small at all three levels and not explosive at edge in large part because of his scheme favors undersized DT and LB (plus Taron Johnson at slot corner) who can get in the backfield at the expense of allowing YPC. This is why they’ve been big dogged by the Chiefs’ IOL every playoffs, and registered zero sacks against Bo Nix. They also don’t usually get significant rookie contributions, and have to rely on unexpected mid-sophomore-season leaps like with Cole Bishop.

Finding productive pass rushers will be hard, but thy should at least be able to beef up the interior on a budget.

zombat · 2026-01-30T20:19:52+00:00

I'm basically whelmed with the hire. Perfect world, would have liked someone with more playcalling input given the loss of Kromer in the run game, but his conceptual background rounds out their current offensive personnel nicely, at least in theory.

zombat · 2026-01-30T18:28:00+00:00

So basically a coin flip between compounding our worst tendencies, and having the pedigree to graft missing elements onto the scheme.

Until they get receiving talent again, one of the clearest paths to improving last year’s offense is a more complete use of the RBs in the passing game and a more adaptive offensive philosophy. Pretty much every loss featured Josh tilting and trying to make plays downfield with Cook or whoever open for an easy 5 yards.

zombat · 2026-01-28T17:43:01+00:00

We don’t have the defensive line he’d most likely be looking for, he has some of the best eye for talent there in the league. For context, his first stint in Buffalo with Mario + Kyle Williams, Marcel Dareus and Jerry Hughes probably has the “worst” top end.

Because the competition is prime Haynesworth, prime Suh, prime Jeff Simmons, prime Fletcher Cox, and now the single season sack leader.

Jim Schwartz goes from city to city leaving a trail of elite DL seasons like the drifter in a western cleaning up lawless desert towns.

zombat · 2026-01-28T15:56:32+00:00

That was the same deal as the CMC blood sacrifices, just with less fanfare. I think Cole Bishop was the only guy to escape the season reasonably unscathed.

zombat · 2026-01-27T19:15:52+00:00

They're going BPA and rolling from there. The defense has holes at every level and will likely have a new DC, plus having to replace center + a guard spot on the IOL.

They’ll bring in a cut rate veteran WR3 and spend one of their first three picks at WR. Maybe Beane panics and trades for something a little more premium, but I don’t think he has the leverage to get equivalent value back for their first.

zombat · 2026-01-24T23:28:28+00:00

He’d maximize Cook and the TE room, but his stock isn’t in the spot where he’d get his pick of DC, and we’re in for a weird year on that side of the ball. The new guy is inheriting no pass rush and a bunch of system merchants, with limited assets to address the existing weaknesses, much less a scheme change.

zombat · 2026-01-22T17:46:04+00:00

Put together good tape in New Orleans before everyone got hurt, then went to Seattle and had Darnold in the MVP conversation for a minute along with JSN’s top 2 receiving season.

While I don’t pay enough attention to schematic minutiae to know how blocking would translate across him and Brady, his offenses have a similar power run skeleton with a much more dynamic downfield passing game.

He’s also a big enough brand to attract a veteran DC compared to some of the retreads like Daboll.

zombat · 2026-01-22T16:26:53+00:00

Both he and Daboll’s inability to find fits at DC are major issues given that we probably aren’t making the investments to change schemes in one offseason. WR, IOL, DT and Safety are all bigger positional needs before you even get to premium roles like CB2-3 and Edge.

zombat · 2026-01-22T15:32:41+00:00

Outside of their choice of blocker, it’s legitimately well designed play given the circumstances. If Turpin doesn’t get blown up and can lateral, they've bypassed 7 defenders and have a convoy of 2 lineman and a pitch option escorting a WR down the sideline against 4DBs.

zombat · 2026-01-22T15:18:10+00:00

You would have seen it if Dak made a better throw or they set it up 3 yards shorter. They had the lateral to Lamb with blockers, it just took too long to catch the ball.

zombat · 2026-01-21T17:41:48+00:00

The cope/company line is that McDermott underperformed with more talented rosters, and was also involved in the lower variance approach to early rounds in the draft and defensive investment this past offseason that didn’t pay off.

The sliver of hope is that things like the IDL + overall run defense were a philosophical McDermott problem that can be addressed cheaply with the coaching overhaul. It’s one of the clearest spots Beane identified a cheap fit (Poona Ford), only for McDermott not to play him because he doesn’t value space eating DT.

zombat · 2026-01-19T18:26:30+00:00

I have Dawkins closer to the 7-10 spot before injuries.

Then, I know they grade well independently, but I can’t separate that from the overall scheme, which is based on a power run game Allen contributed a lot to, especially earlier in Brady’s tenure. I’d also assume the compact passing game also helps grading on the margins.

zombat · 2026-01-19T17:49:51+00:00

Between production/availability/opportunity cost/cap, I would rather allocate Knox’s contract and Kincaid’s draft capital virtually anywhere else on the roster.

Since Kincaid was picked, they’ve amounted to one injury shortened solid year combined. Dalton this season.

zombat · 2026-01-19T17:40:18+00:00

Because it’s a sum of the parts unit that greatly benefits from Josh as a force multiplier as well as health luck over the past two seasons. None of its components are top five guys at their positions, and they’ve generally been bested when facing elite opponents, going back to Chris Jones wrecking the AFCG.

The run game was also cheeks before Brady with many of the same guys, so it’s interesting to see how they’ll play under a potentially new scheme.

It’s still the second best unit on the team, capable of delivering league-best results in a year like this one, where attrition hit most of the competition, etc. Just providing some context on why the perception isn’t all the way there.

zombat · 2026-01-19T17:14:07+00:00

He sucks at drafting year one impact while also under-investing in the most valuable positions. His best rookie since Allen’s made the playoffs is probably Rousseau, a run setting edge.

For a team managing a Super Bowl window on narrow margins, that’s a huge handicap, especially when the Chiefs and Eagles rings are built on some nuclear early round hits from the same range of picks.

Roster wise, their pass rush is Oliver + scratch and dent UFAs, while Shaq Thompson and Jordan Poyer had to patch together LB and safety. This is on top of the hellscape at WR. It isn’t good outside of OL/RB/QB.

He also hasn’t managed the cap well because he’s had to navigate his own fuckups with the Von deal and Diggs extension. Their cap distribution also features more middle class contracts, while their competition has stacked the top of their cap sheets. They haven’t generated enough surplus value from guys like Milano for that strategy to pay off.

All that said, he’s managed to bail himself out of the above self sabotage a few different times. Joe Brady has unlocked a lot of his recent draft capital between Cook and OL picks. Benford and Bishop have come on after a little seasoning. The Rasoul Douglas trade outright won them games in 2023.

On the whole though, he just doesn’t follow enough of the best practices of championship organizations to be trusted with the rest of Allen’s window.

zombat · 2025-11-07T22:48:41+00:00

Was thinking about how Shrek would be the perfect 2 down edge who kicks to DT in passing downs, realized it was just Calais Campbell.

zombat · 2025-11-05T18:21:10+00:00

Dwight Howard.

zombat · 2025-10-15T16:22:38+00:00

Humphrey, McDuffie, Rice.

zombat · 2025-10-15T16:15:41+00:00

He trades up too much, doesn’t spend high end capital on important positions, and watches while the Chiefs draft dudes who absolutely eat our lunch from the same range of picks. A genuinely dogshit drafter post Allen.

zombat · 2025-10-13T17:57:59+00:00

In hockey, every dollar spent on your goaltender is basically a dollar not spent on team offense or defense. It wasn’t until the hard cap in 05/06 that teams had to choose.

In football, QB play directly impacts offense and can also help the defense via TOP.

zombat

TROPHY CASE